This is the story of a discreet and enigmatic singer in post-war Berlin, a city divided between the Western Allies and the Russians. At night, she performed at the Orient bar or in an American club. Regulars knew her by her stage name, "Lydia" or "Lydina." For the Soviet intelligence services, however, she was considered a top-level spy. Her mission in this city under reconstruction, on the frontlines of the Cold War? To identify future "moles" in the cabarets, ready to serve Moscow. Soldiers, police officers, diplomats, agents – there was no shortage of lonely souls and potential recruits.

Among her clientele, "Lydia" probably did not take long to spot Pierre Chaignot. This 24-year-old Frenchman from the eastern city of Verdun had been stationed in West Berlin since late 1945 with the brigade for territorial surveillance, a remote branch of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST, the forerunner of the current Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure, or DGSI, France's domestic intelligence agency). Naive, easily influenced and apparently not too burdened by scruples, he was an ideal candidate to be turned into a mole within a French intelligence service known for being porous. At the time, it was more interested in purging collaborators than in hunting down agents from the East.

In a series of articles on Soviet espionage in France, Le Monde revealed in January the main outlines of Chaignot's story, showing how his disclosures to Moscow had caused considerable damage within Western intelligence circles at the time. However, since the publication of that investigation, new information has come to light, allowing us to complete this remarkable story by better understanding the role played by "Lydia": this seasoned adventurer, well-versed in the clandestine world, was, in reality, the central figure in the entire operation.

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